Carsome, Southeast Asia’s leading car e-commerce platform, has named Ravi Shankar Mallavarapu as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Ravi will oversee multi-disciplinary responsibilities and continue to drive Carsome’s leadership in all marketing-related elements. He will also be in charge of brand, marketing, digital, social media, public relations, growth, market research, and customer experience, according to Carsome. On brand, creative, production, and sponsorships, he’ll collaborate closely with Carsome’s Chief Brand Officer, Derek Tan. Ravi brings nearly 15 years of digital, brand, and growth marketing experience to the table. He spent six years in India working for a variety of companies before coming to Malaysia, where he most recently served as AirAsia’s Chief Growth Officer.
“I am thrilled to be a part of Carsome’s journey of building a trusted car ownership ecosystem using data and technology. Being the industry leader, Carsome is in a good position to bring change to user behaviour in the Southeast Asian region, where most car transactions are done offline. We can move this online by establishing trust and the best customer experience at every touchpoint. I look forward to making Carsome the top-of-mind brand in this region and connecting the dots between brand, marketing, technology and data,” said Ravi.
Ravi also developed an in-house digital marketing team at AirAsia and changed it into a growth team that runs advertising and develops marketing solutions, in line with the company’s business strategy of pivoting from an airline to a super-app. This appointment, according to Carsome Co-founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng, is a critical step in further strengthening Carsome’s leadership team in order to achieve greater heights. He also noted that Mallavarapu is a data-driven marketer who blends creativity with good execution; and that they are extremely thrilled to have him on board to enable Carsome’s purpose in the industry, which is to build a new standard of buying and selling vehicles.
Ravi’s appointment comes at a good moment for Carsome, which is looking to streamline and extend its marketing and outreach operations, with a particular focus on its business-to-consumer arm, Carsome Certified, which is an industry standard for automobile purchase with quality assurance and peace of mind.
